LOS ANGELES - Today, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, The First Amendment Project of Oakland, CA and a large number of local and national artists announced that they are protesting the removal of Alex Donis' exhibit, "WAR," from the Watts Towers Art Center.

The show, which is comprised of a series of paintings featuring fictionalized pairings of LAPD officers and gang members in same-sex dancing poses with companion text from renowned African-American poet and performance artist, Keith Antar Mason, stirred controversy. The Watts Community Action Council warned of protest and possible violent action by members of the Watts community. The Art Center Director, Mark Greenfield, in consultation with Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department General Manager Margie Reese, decided to take the exhibition down.

In a letter to Mr. Greenfield and Ms. Reese, the groups and artists urge the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department to live up to the requirements of the First Amendment and take a stand for artistic expression by reinstalling the show as soon as possible. Furthermore, they called for a policy to ensure that First Amendment rights are protected in the future.

The letter states, "a government sponsored art space cannot legally cancel an exhibition of constitutionally protected expression merely because the art may offend the sensibilities of certain members of the community."

"Art challenges the very notion that there is only one way of seeing things, " said Heather Carrigan, Director of Public Policy at the ACLU of Southern California. "No one is required to like Mr. Donis' art, but everyone should be allowed to make that judgment for him or herself."

Svetlana Mintcheva, Arts Advocacy Coordinator at the National Coalition Against Censorship, said that "if warnings of controversy and possible violence succeed in silencing expression, then violence prevails over freedom and democratic dialogue."

LOS ANGELES - In response to concerns voiced by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, the Claremont Unified High School District has agreed not to pat- down students and conduct "breath searches" at school graduation ceremonies without reasonable suspicion that a particular student has violated applicable law or school rules.

As first reported in the Claremont Courier on June 27, 2001, Claremont High School teachers performed pat-down searches of students before they were allowed to enter a baseball field where their graduation ceremony was to take place.

Soon after learning about the reported searches, the ACLU/SC sent the district a letter calling for an end to the policy of searching students without reasonable suspicion, explaining that such searches are in clear violation of students' Fourth Amendment rights. In response to the ACLU/SC's letter, the district agreed that students will not be searched without reasonable suspicion. Today, the ACLU/SC sent the district's counsel a letter saying that, in light of the district's assurances, litigation should not be necessary unless there are future violations of students' rights.

"We are pleased that the district has given assurances that it will respect students' constitutional rights and that it will not conduct blanket searches of graduating students," said Dan Tokaji, staff attorney for the ACLU/SC. "Students who have worked hard to graduate should not have their rights violated simply because the school has a hunch that a few of them may be under the influence of alcohol. The ACLU/SC will remain vigilant in making sure the district abides by its promise to end indiscriminate searches."

A copy of the ACLU/SC's letter to the Claremont High School District follows this release.

"A few bad apples should not be allowed to taint the experience of graduation day for the rest of the student body," said ACLU/SC board member Glenn A. Goodwin who resides in the Claremont area. "Graduation day should be about proud parents and students celebrating and ejoying the highest academic achievement of these students' young lives not about administering pat-down searches and breath searching students who may have never had a drop of alcohol in their lives."

LOS ANGELES -- A California Supreme Court has granted the motion for class certification in the Williams vs. California suit. The decision allows thousands of California public school students to be represented as a whole in a suit against the state of California.

Williams vs. California, the historic class-action lawsuit brought by the ACLU and other civil rights organizations and private law firms, was filed on behalf of all California public school students who lack essentials required for an opportunity to learn. The lawsuit charges the state with having reneged on its constitutional obligation to provide students with the bare essentials necessary for education. The suit also charges California with having violated state and federal requirements that equal access to public education be provided without regard to race, color, or national origin.

"This is a victory for public school students throughout the state," said Mark Rosenbaum, Legal Director for the ACLU/SC. "Now that the court has seen it fit to grant class certification we can work on setting up a system to identify and correct deficiencies in the California public schools and to end the statewide system of have and have-not schools. The court's decision confirms that this is a case of statewide dimensions requiring statewide solutions."

The issue of class certification was one of the central battles in the Williams case. The order to grant class certification represents a major setback for the state of California. It is unclear exactly how many students the order will affect because the state does not have a system in place to monitor and correct problems involving the public schools. The state of California has also filed a counter suit against it's own school districts, demanding that they be held responsible for fixing problems in their own schools.

"Another school year has begun," stated Rosenbaum, "and the state of California still has no idea which students lack textbooks, qualified teachers and even classroom seats. As the state demands accountability from students, parents and teachers, it must be accountable too for failing to provide all children with the bare necessities of equal education."

By law the state of California is obligated to provide its students with at least the bare essentials necessary for the education of all students. Many of the plaintiffs in the Williams case cited a lack of textbooks, no access to a library, chronically unfilled teacher vacancies, lack of sanitary toilet facilities and vermin infestations among other conditions that were common at their respective schools.

The suit is brought by the ACLU affiliates of California, Morrison & Foerster LLP, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Public Advocates, Inc., Center for Law in the Public Interest, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Professors Karl Manheim and Alan Ides, Peter Edelman of the Georgetown University Law Center, and Robert Myers of Newman. Aronson. Vanaman.